Stuff White People Like

I decided to write my papers for "How Adults Learn" on white racial identity development. It's a very interesting theory because it touches on something that I don't think a lot of white people really think about. This is likely going to change since soon enough the nation will have a "minority majority" or however they say it in the papers. Historically whites weren't confronted with their racial identity as often as they are today; I know I wasn't growing up in a practically all-white community (with the except of my lovely best friend and her family). After moving to New York though, I became much more aware of it and have remained so ever since.

I was telling this to someone today and he sent me a link to the site "Stuff White People Like". This site is absolutely hilarious! It obviously applies to a certain cross-section of the American Caucasian population given the things that blogger Christian Lander writes about (Asian fusion food for example). I'd say that cross-section lives primarily on a coast in a giant city, so it directly applies to me! Of course not all of his 102 things apply to me (I don't even know who Michel Gondry is), but others really hit the nail on the head, like...

-#72 Study Abroad, which states "In addition to accumulating sexual partners, binge drinking, drug use and learning, white people consider studying abroad to be one of the most important parts of a well rounded college education."

-#78 Multilingual Children, which states "As white people age, they start to feel more and more angry with their parents for raising them in a monolingual home. " (For me it's more my great grandparents, but close enough.)

-#46 The Sunday New York Times, which states "Once coffee, food, and the newspaper have been procured, white people put on extra mellow music (Jazz, Classical, or for the cooler ones in the bunch, ambient trip hop or something along those lines)... The secret you may not know, is that deep down, all white people are desperately trying to make their life seem like an ad for a Sub Zero refrigerator, or an article in Gourmet/Bon Appetit magazine." (My roommate does exactly this with the weekend Times, and if I didn't have homework to do I'd probably do it too!)

-#19 Traveling, which states "Every white person takes at least one trip to Europe between the ages of 17-29. During this time they are likely to wear a back pack, stay at a hostel, meet someone from Ireland/Sweden/Italy with whom they have a memorable experience, get drunk, see some old churches and ride a train." (Hahahaha! OMG, this is totally me. I've had fun experiences with the Irish, the Swedish and the Italians!)


There are many, many more that have me busting a gut, but you should really just read them for yourself. They can be found at http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.